Chimacum Middle School 6th grade students blogging about solutions to the problems facing our world. This blog was inspired by classroom discussions where students came up with the idea to share their thoughts and ideas through a blog!

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

When you think cows there are probably lots of different things you think. For example…. Cows are so cute. Green meadows. Milk. Yummm, hamburgers. But when you think cows do you think pollution???

Probably not because cows quite frankly are not that, well, not that scary. And we actually depend a lot on cows. We get meat from them, they give us leather, and most importantly milk!!! But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for the environment. And this type of pollution has a name. It’s called Agricultural Pollution. And cows (but more importantly cow’s poop) play a major role in it. You see cows do this thing called excreting their waste products and when it rains the waste flows with it and drains into lakes, ponds and other bodies of water.

Basically that’s a fancy way of saying when cows use the restroom, the waste flows and goes into a body of water. All that extra nutrients pollutes the water and causes algae blooms that are very toxic and harmful. And it happens a lot, overall the farming business across the world generates over 100 times more manure (cow poop) than human waste. So think about that there are 7 billion people on this planet and sewage and waste water is bad enough, so think about that times 100. That’s how much cows produce. And with more demand for milk, meat and leather it’s only going to get worse.

Plus with global warming, there will be more and heavier rainfall. And when the cow’s waste pollutes lakes and ponds people won’t have a safe place to fish. About 1 in 7 people rely on the ocean and water to get food, that’s around 1 billion people who could be affected by this.

Not to mention that the waste when it breaks down releases greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere and heats up the planet. An average dairy farm with about 2,500 cows give or take, produces just as much waste as a city with 411,000 people. So next time you're swooning over cows think about this.Watch this video: The Dangers of Livestock WasteWomach, Jasper. "Agricultural Pollution." Agricultural Pollution. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 22 May 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_pollution#Animal_management>. by Ava